Saturday, Jan 24, 2004
Standoff in Iran turning bitter
By Atul Aneja
MANAMA, JAN. 23. Masking a power struggle between conservative clerics and elected representatives, the standoff between Iranian hardliners and liberals is turning bitter with the assault on several speakers at a pro-reform meeting in western Iran earlier this week.
Nearly 200 members of the radical Islamic Hezbollah movement stormed into the meeting conducted by members of the reformist camp, late Wednesday in the town of Hamedan in western Iran, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) reported.
The intrusion took place at a time when the speakers were condemning the decision by the conservative Council of Guardians to ban hundreds of reformists from standing in the February 20 parliamentary polls because of their alleged deviation from Islamic principles.
The attack led to injuries to a student leader, Said Razavi Fagih, the reformist parliamentarian, Hossein Loghmanian and Hossein Mojahed, who heads the main pro-reform party, Islamic Iran Participation Front (IIPF).
Iran's political crisis erupted when the 12-member Council of Guardians that screens all legislation and candidates disqualified 3,605 of the 8,157 people seeking to stand for Parliament, or Majlis. Most were reformists, including 83 incumbent lawmakers.
The move sparked off a wave of protests, leading several parliamentarians to undertake an on-going sit in.
Without confronting Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran's reformist President, Mohammad Khatami, has vowed to fight the `massive disqualification' of candidates from next month's elections.
"The holding of free elections with the participation of people is only possible if free competition exists and voters have a wide choice," the President wrote in an open letter to a coalition of pro-reform parties.
Mr. Khatami said he was optimistic that Ayatollah Khamenei would persuade the Council to retract from it present stance. Ayatollah Khamenei last week ordered the Council to be more open in its screening procedure.
Consequently, the Council allowed 300 candidates to contest elections but has not relented on permitting sitting parliamentarians from contesting. Hardening the standoff, 54 lawmakers declared on Thursday that they would not participate in the elections unless restrictions imposed by the Council were lifted. Analysts point out that the friction between the conservatives and liberals shrouds a deeper tussle for political power in Iran.
Adib-Moghaddam, a specialist on Iran with the University of Cambridge, told The Hindu that reformists and the Council have a running dispute over the interpretation of Article 99 of the Iranian Constitution that specifies the power of the Guardian Council, including the right to supervise elections to Parliament.
The Council has interpreted `supervision' (nezarat) as synonymous to "giving approval" (nezarat-e-estesvabi), a view rejected by the reformists. The divide between the conservatives and the Council sharpened last year when Mr. Khatami put forward two bills - one which allowed the President to dismiss Government officials including members of the Council of Guardians and another which disallowed the Council from screening candidates for elections.
The Council rejected both these bills, which had been overwhelmingly approved by Parliament.
IRNA quoted Gholam-Heydar Ebrahimbay Salami, a lawmaker who is participating in the sit-in as saying that the on-going protests should be interpreted as a "defence for democracy".
Copyright © 2004, The Hindu.